20 million people in the UK are under a drought order. We are banned from using hosepipes and have to share baths (might be making up the last bit, but that was actually advised by the Government back in 1976 when we had a big drought). And this time around its set to last until Christmas, apparently.
So what does a drought look like in Britian? Well it looks like this:
Yes its been raining solidly for about a week. The problem is all the water is escaping through broken pipes that were built in the Victorian Age. My water bill is £250 a year. And I ask myself, what for? Where is this money going? Right down the drain!
Happy days. I thought I’d share this little trip back home from work. It took ages to post this clip to show you how dry and dusty our drought-stricken island is.
BTW – to post this clip first I upgraded my WordPress account so I could post videos. Then I had to buy Quicktime Pro so the video would play properly. And all I’ve got to show for it is a 30 second video of it pouring with rain in South London during the rush hour. And it doesn’t even look like a rush does it?
Expect more videos. I’ll try to make them more ‘interesting’. And lets have some traumatic commuting stories – lets face it we spend enough time going to and fro from home to work and back again!
A drought in Texas where I live means NO RAIN for 1-1/2 years, cattle moving out of state to find water, huge brushfires scaring the daylights out of us. Only in the last few weeks have we received rain, and the ponds and lakes are almost full again.
Good grief – we Brits really do know how to make a drama out of a crisis…
I lived in South Ruislip for almost a year in 1965, and I had to carry an umbrella (brolly?) every day. I do remember the fog, too. That’s why I have trouble picturing London short of water. Ha-ha!
Oh the irony indeed😉
funny! drought down the drain ~ there’s a song in there somewhere
I am sending some sunshine with a guarantee of wet weather and a bucket to store it in. Passing along the Sunshine Award because you always have something interesting to share. Check it out at http://www.susartandfood.wordpress.com.
Thanks for that!
I love making videos! Yours turned out awesome with that music.. and it felt like I was driving alongside you guys! (I assume two since someone had to be driving?:) I used a Mac and Movie Maker.. share allows me to videos to my desk top in a variety of formats.. I usually post two a High Res for computers and a smaller format for people with Ipads and phones… Good luck with this!
No just me – the phone is attached to a clip on the dashboard. I like the movie idea for blogs but they have to be quick otherwise they can get a bit boring! At least I think they do
Yup, here in California we often find ourselves in drought conditions, seriously, with no water involved. We ship our Northern California bounty to Southern California where the rich and famous use it to lavish their rich and famous lawns and pocket poodles. However, if they actually used some tax dollars for reservoirs to catch the adipose water that insists on flowing down from the heavens, maybe we wouldn’t have to send our water south. Great video btw.🙂
When I think that the UK is an island that gets hit by weather from the North Atlantic its amazing we can get in this situation. We have no way of transfering water from the west (which is wet) to the east (which is drier) and we are just basically sitting here hoping it will all be okay in the end (with a nice cup of tea)
Filming and driving at the same time? Verdict – tsk tsk!
The camera was placed in a very safe mount and no citizens were at risk at any time. Honest.
Very impressed with the video-addition – chapeau! Have you seen the ‘How to Fake French’ one – if not, I’ll send it. It’s very funny.
Your daughter showed me – it is great why not post it – Joe know what needs to be done!
I’m sorry but that’s a very pathetic rush hour. Coming out of Boston (Boston Bruins hockey game…sigh) last night at midnight we hit a 2 mile backup – yes midnight – on the turnpike due to 4 guys & a highway truck ‘working’.
Love your humo(u)r and your blog & for that reason I am passing along the Kreativ Blogger award to you. Got to reward you to keep you posting & I really look forward to more.
Thanks very much! I remember driving into Downtown Chicago in a cab and hitting a three mile tailback on a Friday night. It occured to me that in London the traffic would be going the other way – that is out of town. The cab driver explained that people live in the middle of the city and all head home on a Friday – kind of weird wanting to get into the middle of a city. But when I got there I understood why – it is an amazing place!
Posting from the U.S. – EEUU to some (Estatdos Estados Unidos Unidos), I occasionally slip in British spelling, but only my Yankee centric spellchecker seems to notice or care. Some drought you’ve got there. Funny spelling that word, drought – why isn’t it drout? BTW, nice background music in the vid. Cheers!
Yes its Faithless – its not really driving music its more commuting music
So so funny, “and it doesn’t even look like a rush does it?”🙂
It was a bit strange its usually really packed around that bit
I can’t believe that your water bill is £250 a year! That sounds insane! Like you live in Abu Dhabi instead of GB!
I can imagine that a lot of water is lost getting from its source to its destination. We have the same problem in the US except our pipes are about a 100 years younger.
Makes you wonder, when there is so much talk about how there are not enough jobs, why don’t people seem to think seriously about rebuilding crumbling infrastructure as a wise investment.
Every now and then we refer to our country as ‘Rip off Britain’. Petrol (i.e. Gas – there’s another linugual difference) costs the equivalent of $10 a gallon. But thats okay its a small country and you never have to drive too far anyway.
The drought and the video are interesting, but what’s really got my attention is the spelling issue. Don’t give up on those ‘u’s! Keep giving us your colourful humour! And, since I’m Canadian, I’ll throw in an ‘eh’ as in, Keep giving us your colourful humour, eh!
Britain doesn’t like to skimp on the vowels. Try Alumimium. I don’t do ‘eh’ I do ‘ai’ which is the South London for ‘Pardon’. BTW ‘ai’ is pronounced ‘a’ not ‘I’.
This is the beauty of us all blogging in our local English – I love picking up all the idioms, interesting spellings, etc. It adds to the fun, and that sense of interacting with the world in a way that standardized English doesn’t!
I especially like slang!
Videos
I finally opened a “youtube” account and that is where I post my videos
Yes I could have tried that one. But that’s too easy. I like to make things complicated
Lmao. I lived there for 2 yrs and it never stopped raining, so I know of what u speak !
You actually make me LOL. Not the LQTM (my daughter tells me that’s Laughing Quietly To Myself)
Our kids speak in acronyms too. They also say ‘Blad’a lot but I don’t know what that means
Ha ha love this! If this is a drought, what the heck do the flood warnings mean?! More videos please – I laughing!🙂
I know we are so good at looking silly in the UK
I think this is the wettest drought I’ve ever known in Britain.
Its a kind of metaphor for the recovery of our economy – like a damp squib.
Your video work should improve with practice, but always love your humor (humour?)
Thats an interesting thing – since I started posting on WordPress I’ve spelled humour as humor because thats how its spelled in the US – as they say ‘when in Rome…’ (or is it spelt?)
Haha!
Color, realize, and pissed off (meaning angry) are sure to follow!
I work for an American company and everyone is always correcting each other’s spelling – especially removing/adding ‘s’s and ‘z’s!
Sounds like you’ll have put in a cistern- be sure to post photos! 🙂
Well funnily enough we are redoing the kitchen so im sure we’ll be posting water related hilarity
I live for the absurd- bring on the hilarity… thank you in advance!
Why thanks I’m sure I’ll try to spot weirdness and report it!